YCAC CURSE STRIKES AGAIN

by Nick Goold

Sunday August 22 saw the Wombats play YCAC in a practice match at Yokohama on another sweltering summer’s day. Taking the train down with Koolhof, Dino, Rayos and Beathy, we couldn’t help noticing the rest of the train was dressed for the beach making a change of plans tempting. Arriving at the station we expected a large turnout given the midweek interest but for various reasons we started the game with the allotted 11 players.

Dino and Evan opened the innings after GT won the toss and elected to bat. The openers started well, and Evan despite his and other members of team’s lack of confidence, displayed good technique. Evan was the first man to depart bowled after posting 17 and a 50 run opening partnership. Beathy then strode to the crease, a lot later than he expected and as usual looked confident from the outset. Just when Dino looked set for a hundred he was caught looking to up the run rate. Beathy fell to a very sharp caught and bowled chance just short of his 50. Nick started a bit shaky was lucky to be dropped on the boundary. Hajime displayed solid technique but fell victim to the late search for runs and selflessly tried to make it back for a tight two. Kyle then entered for the last couple of overs and hit a couple of lusty blows to end with 10. Nick was clean bowled off the final delivery for 35 looking to repeat the previous shot for six. The final total was 188 which seemed decent but as in past matches we knew the YCAC are masters at using their home ground to their advantage.

The lunch break extended longer than expected following a mix up with the large amount of hamburgers ordered from the Wombats and Sri Lankan members of the YCAC tucking into a couple of cheeky jugs of beer.

YCAC chase started poorly with their captain departing in the 2nd over giving the Wombats hope that we could break the YCAC curse once and for all. Unfortunatly their new members from the Sri Lankan Lions had other ideas and started to display their trademark cross bat ability taking advantage of the short square boundaries. Some friendly sledging managed to extract the 2nd opener with Dino taking another good catch behind the stumps. The removal of the opener saw his replacement continue in a similar manner much to our annoyance.

The match started to slip through our fingers with their top scorer skying a ball in the air only for 3 people to yell yours and land safely in the middle of them. Despite the bowlers best efforts their batsmen proved too good. There were some great attempts at the Herchelle Gibbs award including a sitter from Mr Ray in the covers, and then two in two balls off the bowling of GT, who nearly lost his calm exterior. The YCAC ended up getting the runs quite comfortably in the end as some of bowlers were on the receiving end of some very powerful hitting.

Following some friendly drinks and a team highlights session with the opposition we made our way back on the train. As with previous journeys home recently the train trip threatened to live up to wombats legend but luckily for our fellow travellers, there was more potential than reality. Despite this. Killer proved a hit teaching anyone willing to listen what a cricket bat is used for. There was also a beer throwing incident on the platform which saw the hasty arrival of a couple of green men praying for us to stop and move on. As usual it was enjoyable day out at YCAC and hopefully the practice will see us find some well needed form for the finals ahead.